This is an awesome 5 way compilation of sick noise artists from New York put out by Continuum. records. Most of this can't be heard anywhere except for on the record, and it's definitely worth owning. I'm writing this in an artist-to-artist review style, because every artist brings to the table tracks that exemplify exactly what they do best.

Waves Crashing Piano Chords - WCPC gives you exactly what you expect (and want) from him. Piercing mic-to-amp feedback with intense, in your face aggressive vocals. He manages to reach lots of good tones with nothing more than his amplifier. A sample comes in eventually to add nice background to the wall of sound already being pummeled into you. Before you can even get used to the noise, it's already over, ending with a track dedicated to Dennis Lynn Rader (BTK Killer).

Rosy Palms - Haunting voices tease and flirt with each other amongst lo-fi treble and wet, gritty synth lines. This track has a nice ambience through it, yet just enough tone changes to remind you it's still there. It has a very industrial ambience to it, almost David Lynch-esque soundscape at some points. Eventually a noise like crawling insects comes in, along with sound bytes of women speaking about an altar and the atrocities they faced there. Rosy Palms truly put together some creepy noise tracks, keeping you either afraid or uncomfortable the whole time. The track concludes with high pitched feedback and out-of-breath shouted vocals, like the vocalist is almost gasping for life.

Swallowing Bile - Right out of the gate, walls of crumbling harsh noise wall come collapsing down onto you. With Swallowing Bile's recognizable vocals competing to be louder than his own onslaught of noise, this is straight up power electronics done right. If you don't know about Swallowing Bile, you're fucking up. Get on it.

Sunken Cheek - The Sunken Cheek track starts off with a rusty clanging sound and tiny bursts of high-pitched feedback. They continue with more bursts of feedback as a wind like ambience comes into the sound collage that is slowly coming together. Vocals that sound like demons drowning at the bottom of the ocean dance around the feedback violence; this track eventually collapses in on itself and turns to complete fucking chaos. A short and sweet track that's scratchy and abrasive as fuck. Don't miss out on this SC track.

Foot And Mouth Disease - FAMD start off with two short tracks of spacey noise, and then are eventually joined by Waves Crashing Piano Chords for a collaboration track to close out the record. With FAMD on noise, WCPC takes over the track with his signature mic feedback and "Bondage Raped" vocals. For fans of either artists, this is an essential track of two noise titans coming together as one.

Do you have a low attention span? Are you constantly thinking "GET ON WITH IT FOR FUCKS SAKE" when listening to music? Do you also happen to enjoy strange, distorted blasts of chaotic noise? I would assume so seeing as you're on this blog, so do I have the demo for you! Sounding like the muffled coughing of Satan himself mixed with biting, lo-fi explosions of riffs and drumming, Dionysus is the side project of Toronto, Ontario band Gofuckyourself and have managed to create one nasty, albeit short-lived, racket. Some of the songs last about 2-4 seconds and are comparably the blackened crust equivalent of Charles Bronson's "412 Wolfpack"- Dionysus maintain a sense of humour about their music and have still created something pretty memorable (partially due to their hilarious choice of the demo's title and artwork) considering its a rough mix of their first demo. If you're in the mood for some extremely foreboding works of noise, grindcore, or blackened crust and have about five minutes to kill then I wholeheartedly recommend "Play Fast or Die, Eh".

Friday, 30 May 2014

Modern powerviolence done so right, it kinda hurts.
We all know Hatred Surge has kind of been losing their touch gradually after Deconstruct, but alas we have Mindless to fill the void.
Featuring ex Hatred Surge vocalist Faiza Kracheni, Mindless play super heavy, beefed powerviolence, with a bit of grind and hardcore thrown in. Just as chaotic and intense as their fellow PV peers, Mindless also feature one of the gnarliest bass tones I've ever had the pleasure of listening too. There's some monstrous sludgy breaks too, which tend to be overused nowadays, but Mindless pull it off tastefully.
This takes the 'fast and heavy' approach to powerviolence more so than the 'weird and drugged up' one, but the constant barrage of riffs, pissed of vocals and mosh worthy parts will keep you tapping your feet for multiple listens. Dig it below.

Thursday, 29 May 2014

Jazz and all it's many, many wonderful forms are often overlooked by those in search of fucked up, scary music - which is unfortunate, as the genre has spawned some of the most cacophonic, dissonant recordings in the history of music.
Case in point: Little Women.
Little Women are a jazz quartet out of Brooklyn, New York comprised of two saxophonists (alto and tenor), a guitarist and a drummer. While they may be confined to instruments typically known for jazz, Little Women's compositions include elements of punk, math rock, noise rock and more typical jazz, all translated into some sort of hellish skronk nightmare. Better yet are the tracks where the band members incorporate vocals, never before have I heard such frightening, eerie sounds escape the mouth of a human being.
Deliberately jarring, and objectively transcendental - Little Women's music teeters precariously on the line between chaos and order, with delicate subdued passages the buffer between the chaotic, improvisations that dominate these recordings. This band gives whole new meaning to the word 'sporadic' and it seems a little offensive to use the word 'unpredictable' because somehow, I think these guys knew exactly what they were doing.
You don't have to like jazz to like this - anyone with a profound appreciation for challenging music will be able to enjoy this, and on the flip side, jazz aficionados may find an entry point into the world of noise. Either way, Little Women are a force to be reckoned with, and further proof that avant-garde music can and always will run circles around other 'heavy' genres with their vicious, alienating and completely unrelenting compositions.

There's violent...and then there's this. Waves Crashing Piano Chords is the power electronics project of Mr. Sean Beard, a noise musician out of Rochester, New York.
Unlike many noise projects around today, WCPC utilises a primitive, almost puristic approach to power electronics, eschewing synthesizers and pedals for a microphone and unholy amounts of feedback. WCPC has taken the creepy, wailing screeches of 1980s era power electronics and brought them to the forefront, without the muffled or drowned out quality of some of those recordings - it's mean, in your face and very fucking loud. With nothing standing in between you and cascading walls of shrill feedback and Sean's gruff, menacing vocals, WCPC are definitely one of the most confrontational and unforgiving power electronics outfits around. Harnessing pure microphone feedback and turning into a formidable weapon may be one thing, but doing in such a way that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up goes to show that is entirely possible for folks to still create music that elicits such a strong response (as sadistic as this may be).Young Mouth/It Wasn't Even Worth My Back Seat is out on 7" very shortly on H8 Track Stereo but in the meantime you can either download it here or suss it out on the Waves Crashing Piano Chords soundcloud.

I'm not gonna lie, I'm not a huge powerviolence fan. I do like it, however its not usually something that I can consistently listen to, the bands posted in the "for fans of" section above notwithstanding. So its pretty rare for me to find a powerviolence band that I actually get excited for and continually listen to- and holy shit Sordo just became one of those bands for me. Sordo is a three piece band that has cranked out one helluva good album here filled with explosions of deafening noise, mixed with some hilariously well placed soundbites from Street Fighter (Hadouken), Hobo with a Shotgun (Skull Stomp), and even Spongebob Squarepants (I Wish I Had Paws). That's right....fuckin' Spongebob. They may be a bit comical, but Sordo will doubtlessly fucking pulverize you nonetheless as waves barked vocals met with grimy, frantic riifs that make up the twenty tracks on "Tactical Precision Violence" that each blast by in a handful of seconds.

Lifelessly clanging away at an ear-blistering pace, this Frederick, Maryland quartet has shelled out a pretty good album here. Moving away from the classic lo-fi aesthetic of black metal while still maintaining aspects of its signature aesthetic, Sloth Herder has done a great job of mixing the hollow, screeching wails of black metal vocals while sticking to the crisp and bloodied shredding of grindcore guitar instrumentation. "Abandon Pop Sensibility" pretty much works as the mission statement of the album, if not the band itself, the wild transitioning between malicious smashing of the drums and strings and slow melancholy bits of near-atmospheric black metal (which ironically lasts about 30 seconds for each segment shattering the long-as-fuck pretense of most atmospheric black metal works) is pretty far from what damn near anyone I know would call "sensible"- good stuff regardless though, grab it at their bandcamp below.

Tuesday, 27 May 2014

Whitewater Orgasm is the solo project of Finnish noise musician, Santeri Lohi. 'Immunity' is his latest release, and boy does it pack a wallop.
Fading into a massive static wall with album opener "I Fall From Normal State', it seems that Lohi's only got one thing on his mind: utterly destroying your ears. Backed with harsh, hoarse vocals reminiscent of something you'd find on a black metal album, that track does take an almost surprising turn by ditching the static and going with very heavily distorted synth instead. From there on in, Immunity builds on this formula of static walls, synth lines and incredibly painful bursts of feedback tweaking it slightly to include minimalist and somewhat mournful ambient passages. Each track features a different combination of the aforementioned traits, even foregoing the harsher elements in favour of more unsettling, subdued soundscapes.Immunity is a difficult listen at times, with some of the sustained feedback tones proving a little to treble heavy and piercing for my poor little ears, but on the tracks where the feedback is balanced with low end crunch, as well as the vocals and synths, it proves to be a very well constructed noise release indeed.

TRACKLISTING:
1. I Fall From Normal State
2. Crawling Through A Slow Death
3. Firestorm
4. Hoping For The Sky To Fall
5. Scales To Weigh The Failures In Life
6. Where Mermaids Come To Die
7. The Tropic Sinks Away
8. I Cry Under Snow
9. Dysphoria
10. I Cannot Love
11. Do You Dream To Live Or Live To Dream
12. Orgasm Symbol
13. The Outside Is Calling You
14. Signal Sex

Yup, we're scraping the bottom of the barrel here folks. We're on Facebook now.
Mosey on over hereand give us a like. We'll be updating more often than ever now with bandcamp links, news and other things you can scroll past on your phone while you're taking a dump.

Monday, 26 May 2014

This post is mostly inspired by what was possibly the best weekend of gigs of I have experienced in my relatively short life. Without getting into it too much, I had the pleasure of seeing Thee Nodes twice, and experiencing the wrecking ball of debauched madness that is this band live. Oooooh boy.
Anyway, Thee Nodes are a four piece punk band from Montreal, Canada and basically they sound like The Mummies on a combination of mind altering substances. Lead by 'vocalist' Mr. Node's warped, screeching vocals - the band play a hyperactive, chaotic re-imaging of garage punk. Over the span of their four (current) releases, Thee Nodes have honed their craft into a boisterous, energetic maelstrom of overdriven, noisy punk that's a bit too chaotic to be called catchy but too catchy to be called chaotic. I wasn't able to pick their latest cassette up at the show (F.R.E.A.X is a compilation of all their releases so far), but here's the next best thing - a download of all their releases so far for you to get your grubby mitts all over.
As good as their music is recorded, it seriously pales in comparison to the live show these guys put on. Seriously - if you ever get a chance to see Thee Nodes live - do it.

Wednesday, 21 May 2014

I'm not gonna lie, I saw the artwork and name for this one while browsing some different music and thought "Cool, I'll bite". From there when I listened to the opening track, while also reading the lyrics: "Fly me to the moon, on your bong, your bong of doom, hail Sagan- fuck, twilight of the terminator" and went "well I guess I have to post this now"- a huge shit-eating grin on my face the entire time. Aside from the fact that Lizzard Wizzard makes me chuckle a bit over their not-terribly-serious approach to doom metal, the work itself turned out to be some great stuff. Coming from Brisbane, Australia, Lizzard Wizzard has definitely got the feeling of immense size that characterizes doom/sludge down perfectly- not an easy achievement, especially for their debut album. The bass grooves by at a great pace and works its way through the album with help in progression from the drums that ease the switch back and forth between segments of heavy as fuck sludge to speedy and delicious riffs all of which are backed by lyrics that remind me a lot of "The Druid" by Sleep. Lizzard Wizzard is seriously great, as soon as the opening track hits you you'll be in for a great ride that'll make you start again from track one over and over again every time it finishes.

Tuesday, 20 May 2014

As a fan of the cult rapper "Lil Ugly Mane" I was kind of surprised, but at the same time not really, to discover that he used to be in a black metal band after seeing a video of one of his live performances where he was wearing an "Incantation" shirt. After that a friend told me about his band Vudmurk, and here we are- I figured it was worth posting, although its only one song that lasts about ten minutes its a pretty good piece of raw black metal by someone I never would've expected to have recorded anything of the sort. In his own words: "Uploaded due to demand for it and for people that have been curious
about the “black metal band” i was in, due to a vague remark from a
fader article like 2 and a half years ago. well. here it is, the “band”, consisting of me. recorded on thanksgiving
2007. with a weird fake ibanez looking guitar, a dr,rhythm drum
machine, a plastic karaoke mic and a 4 track. 2 1/2 songs. have at it."

After a bit of a leave of absence because of my exams I'm back and should be posting again pretty regularly, and since it was just Victoria day weekend here in Canada I figured it might be appropriate to post some good ol' Canadian black metal. Coming from almost opposite ends of the country, Skagos and Gris which I'll be taking a look at individually here, are some of the best metal bands that Canada has produced in my own opinion. When I first heard the opening track to Ást I was immediately stricken by how well Skagos is reflective of their home, Vancouver Island, as it's filled with massive and and ancient trees straight out of a fantasy novel cover which Skagos' sound emulates extremely well with their use of slow, ambient drone mixed with a touch of feedback that uneasily leads into the rest of the album- masterfully transitioning through anti-melodic strings, blast beats, and screeching black metal vocals, beautiful choir-like chants, and medieval feeling acoustic pieces. Much like Skagos, Gris is also a great example of music becoming reflective of the surroundings of the musicians involved. Their name alone, "Gris", meaning "grey" in French, pretty much gives you a solid idea of what you're in for musically speaking, which understandably goes along with where they're from: Montreal. I don't know about Montreal in particular, but if its anything like it is where I live in Ottawa (about two hours away) then it's long, beyond cold, and absolutely dead- which is exactly howIl était une forêt sounds. Gris is pretty much the musical equivalent of standing naked in the middle of nowhere during a snowstorm, using insanely heavy pieces where the guitars, bass, and drums work in complete harmony with one another, none standing out more than the other as they drag you through the aforementioned snowstorm whether you like it or not. This is mirrored however the albums use of classical instruments such as cellos, violins, and even piano which work extremely well to bring an end to the album on it's final track "La dryad"- not completely breaking away from the black metal aspect of the rest of album but still bringing you back into reality a bit from the abyss of ear-splitting, melancholy that you've been sitting through- either Ást & Il était une forêt are milestones in black metal and well worth your time.

Monday, 19 May 2014

So Bad Brains may still be alive and kicking, but let's face it - HR looks like he could drop dead at any moment and no-one really actually likes the band for the reggae songs. While one of punk's most important and influential bands is fighting off relatives trying to pull the plug on their life support, why not try something a little more, uh, less old.
BIG ZIT are the band in question. Hailing from Chicago (which has a ridiculously good music scene right now, holy shit), Big Zit play Bad Brains style hardcore, albeit in a much more unrefined and weirder fashion. You've got the HR style vocals, only they're squeakier, higher and much more sloppy and then you've got amazingly fast guitar and drum work, complete with off key guitar solos. I honestly can't get over how new and refreshing this demo is, considering it's essentially building off the blueprints set by a band over thirty years ago.
Big Zit's demo is everything you could ask for from a punk release - fast, weird and obnoxious. It's over before you know it, but it'll leave you that invigorating feeling you can only get from a hardcore band.

Josh Doughty is a noise artist out of Nacogdoches, Texas with two projects, Female Pedophile and Funeral Parlour under his belt. Josh also co-runs the Dumpster Noise Records label with fellow noisemonger Thomas Wiedemann. I talked to Josh about his projects, the label and his relationship with noise music.

FBN: Firstly, tell us who you are and about your current project, Funeral ParlourJosh: Hello, my name is Josh and my main project is Funeral Parlor, which is a noise act from Texas with a lot of synths and perverse themes such as incest and other shit.

FBN: Have you been involved with any other projects, noise or otherwise?Josh: I do have a HNW project that is merely a side thing called Female Pedophile that has the overall theme of women sex offenders/rapists. I plan to be more involved with many other artists in the future.

FBN: Have you and any of your projects ever played live?Josh: Unfortunately, not at this time. Right now, money is tight and I am just putting a decent catalogue out for people to listen to. I plan on playing live later on this year.

FBN: What instruments and equipment do you usually use?Josh: I generally use very little equipment. Normally a keyboard with a lot of reverb on it for the main sounds and for the background noise, pedals like the RAT and the DEMENTIA are some of my favorites. A lot of mids and delay too in the mix.

FBN: What drew you into the world of noise music?Josh: I was introduced to the genre 6 or 7 years ago and I remember being like, "what the fuck is this shit?" but noise is everywhere and I worked a lot of construction, which can be extremely loud to be around as well. Also seeing contemporary acts playing led me to want to create something out of nothing myself.

FBN:Are there any artists, musical or otherwise that inspire your output?Josh: My influences range all over the place honestly. It can go from Whitehouse to Keith Sweat to Asylum Party to C.C.C.C. The most immediate influences would be my label mate Thomas in Garbage Mask and other artists making shit around me. Watching them create shit makes me want to as well.

FBN: Tell us about the label you co-run, Dumpster Noise Records - how did that come about and what's involved with running it?Josh: Well, Thomas wanted to make noise himself and after a couple of months buying the appropriate equipment, he started showing me some neat recordings. By learning how noise was actually made opted me to try myself to make some shit. We ordered a shit load of tapes and after about two releases, Dumpster Noise Records was made. I believe this will only grow now. I take care of dubbing all the tapes and Thomas takes care of making the J cards. We split everything in half so it works out pretty well! If we like something, we put it out.

FBN: Any tips or pointers for anyone looking to start a label themselves?Josh: I am a firm believer of doing everything yourself. Not only will you get shit done the way you want, you will find it to be very liberating once shit starts rolling for you. Relying on other people can be much more taxing in regards to time.

FBN: For a genre that has its roots in anti-art and abolishing stylistic conventions, noise has certainly picked up plenty of styles and conventions of its own, especially in regards to subject matter, themes and aesthetic. How do you feel about this?Josh: I do see the anti music side of it, but even walls of feedback and sounds have some sorts of structure especially if you are the one dictating what comes out of your speakers. Noise has been around for a while now and I believe that without being lost in the plethora of acts that use the same equipment and effects and putting out a considerable amount of music, a theme or some sort of subject matter is almost necessary. That is the way I see it at least. Its like, "I've heard Merzbow before. What can you do to make me listen?" And "Say something new or nothing at all."

FBN: Finally, any thank yous, words of wisdom or shout outs you wish to impart on the blogosphere? Josh: Thank you for taking your time to ask these questions and for the opportunity and thanks to anyone who has listened to my shit! Shout outs to to everyone on the Dumpster City 2 x CS that is expected to drop next month. Check out Garbage Mask and The Hague. Also, if you can find contact for Natural God, let me know. They fucking rule and want to release more of their shit. Stay safe.

Funeral Parlour's music can be found here, and Female Pedophile's music can be found here
Tapes (from Funeral Parlour and Garbage Mask) can be found at the Dumpster Noise Records bigcartel
Keep an eye out for the Dumpster City 2 x CS, which will be out shortly!

Everyone knows conventional song structures blow, and meticulously structured song writing does get a bit droll after a while but no one knows this more so than Big Fur Coat. BFC are a duo of musicians from Massachusetts, USA who specialize in deliciously abstract noise rock, straight out of the school of free improvisation.Rituals Laughter is the end result of two dudes getting together and jamming, the sort of atonal, aimless jamming that only someone with an utter disdain for the well being of anyone listening could produce. The guitar lines spit and stutter like a rabies victim, unleashing quick bursts of crazed energy, before leading off into some sort of heinous discordant void, only to come back later and have another go at your jugular. On the other end are the drums, which don't exactly keep the pace (there is no pace), but instead they frollic around in chaotic fills, and compliment the jarring guitar playing with equally unpredictable vigor. It's not just the guitar and drums either, you'll get screams, yells and coughs thrown at you at very random intervals (I heard a can opening too, so there's that).Rituals Laughter is by no means a track by track album. By itself the tracks would seem out of context and pointless - but as a whole it's a monstrous testament to the noisier side of avant garde music. Just sit yourself down, play this and enjoy the sonic fistfuck that will surely greet you when you press play.

Holy mother of RIFFS Batman!
Rizoma are a three piece outfit from Madrid, Spain and this here is their debut, self titled EP.
Rizoma's influences range far and wide, but ultimately they center on the nasty and untamed side of rock, with garage punk and noise rock being the ones that stick out.
On this 6 track EP, the Spaniards prove they're quite adept at coaxing delicious, fuzzy tones out their guitar with plentiful smatterings of psychedelic tinged guitar solos that are just soaked in wah. Just as wild and woolly as the guitar are the vocals, which have this raw, almost desperate quality to them. On this EP, Rizoma flow from grunge to stoner rock (closing track ¡Oh, Son Muñecos De Nieve Que Profetizan El Apocalipsis!), to straight-forward, three chord punk (Cows, Sheeps, Pigs And Tractors) to aggressive noise rock (Wipers Shirt) while maintaining its hazy, garage rock persona.
Not quite Stooges worship, just shy of something Sub Pop might've picked up back in the day and definitely something you wouldn't want to take back to meet your parents - check it out.

TRACKLISTING:
1. Satanic Psychedelic Punks On The Run
2. It Feels So Good To Kill My Neighbors While Listening To The Stooges
3. Wipers Shirt
4. Cows, Sheeps, Pigs And Tractors
5. The Invasion Of The Fascist Scarecrows (Horticultural Reich)
6. ¡Oh, Son Muñecos De Nieve Que Profetizan El Apocalipsis!

Tuesday, 13 May 2014

Pop. 1280 have reached the fabled balance between style and substance - the mythical middle ground between having decent music and a rockin' aesthetic to boot. Sure pink album covers and driving gloves are cool, but you know what's even cooler? Cyberpunk -cyberpunk lifted straight from the gutters of a very grimy, 1970/1980s New York. This feels like Videodrome, Escape From New York, The Warriors and THX 1138 somehow got together and started a punk band together.
Style aside, Pop. 1280's music is every bit as sinister and sleazy as a 70s sci fi flick, melding synth lines with angular, scraping guitars to create their 'cyberpunk' sound. There's 9 tracks here, broken up by instrumental interludes that sound like they could've been lifted straight from a John Carpenter film, all of which really convey the pulsating, unsettling throb of an urban dystopia. Lyrically The Grid explores the underbelly of this decaying city, and the prostitutes, junkies and chronic masturbators who populate it, detailed by a vocalist that sounds a tad bit like Trent Reznor (just a bit).
Stylistically appealing and musically appealing, this is one for those of you who like your noise rock a little more refined, but disturbing and weird nonetheless.

Japan is not a place you'd normally associate with first wave of power electronics - I'm more used to hearing about the emerging 'Japanoise' scene and it's migration over to America - yet here we are with what is essentially a first wave power electronics release from a Japanese band.
White Hospital were comprised of Jun Konagaya and Tomasada Kuwahara, and unfortunately they didn't stick around very long, releasing only this album and the excellently titled 'We Wish You Are Merry Christmas' 7". Despite this very short lifespan, White Hospital did produce what I think is one of the most creative and innovative industrial releases of its time, melding tribal rhythms, field recordings, sampling, primitive synth lines and screeching feedback into a volatile and often creepy miasma of sound. Holocaust's biggest strength is its juxtaposition of quieter passages with the louder ones, balancing eerie, menacing ambient with apocalyptic, harsh industrial soundscapes. The vocals, on the few tracks where they appear, are venomous and distorted beyond all recognition and tend to follow the rhythm of the song, rather than be the focal point.
Definitely not your average power electronics release, if anything I'd say it has more in common with Throbbing Gristle/Psychick Youth and the tribal noise that Whitehouse have been pedaling as of late.

You like hardcore? Sure you do buddy, but once you've gotten your dose, you just can’t get enough of that breakdown, eh bro? Yeah, I’m guilty of liking modern hardcore and who doesn't? Sure it’s super fun and you can really lose yourself in a pit. This being said, when last have you been absolutely obliterated by a hardcore band, that you just don’t know where to turn, what to do or even what to think? Take a few minutes to think about it.
Yeah, I figured as much. Long gone are the days of Dropdead style hardcore and bands like Siege or Infest who just fucked shit up from start to finish. Not if a few lads from Anchorage, Alaska have anything to say about it. Enter Lamplighter, the 4-piece cluster bomb that rips everything to absolute shit. It’s fast and it definitely will leave your senses completely shot. It has that slower, almost sludgy type of riffs among the chaos that is all out war on music.
It’s absolutely fucking filthy and it puts a smile on the face of anyone who’s into the above mentioned bands, but with a little twist. The rooted hardcore elements at the very core of their Lycanthropy EP is enough to put one into a transient state of nostalgia before it blast-fucks you into pink mist.
There are definite elements of grindcore and even just full-on noisecore throughout Lycanthropy struck me with awe as I just sat back and just indulged in the complete clusterfuck of anti-sound that was being blasted at me through my speakers. One of those bands that put the hard back into hardcore and just pulverizes from start to finish. The additional influences insure that it at no point becomes one-dimensional. This might be one of my favourite releases so far this year and it will be difficult to beat.

In April I was lucky enough to experience Australia, particularly Melbourne and Sydney’s vibrant music scene, with heaps of international acts making their way over. Lest we forget the incredible local music scene within the above mentioned cities. Now, I’m all for Black, Death and Thrash metal, however, I never found myself at a Hardcore, Grindcore or Powerviolence show, which is quite sad, considering the incredible music from those afore mention genres around, especially in Melbourne.
Well, I got back to Jo’bug and I was recommended Caged Grave, by none other than my esteemed colleague Brayden. So I had a listen to their album titled Gutless and I was absolutely blown away. The fury and the speed took me completely by surprise. It’s short, it’s fast and it will kick your fucking head in. The sheer intensity of it was crushing, from start to finish. They’ve seemed to find the perfect balance between speed, intensity and then the odd groovy riff. When I say groovy, I don’t mean Pantera groovy, more of a hardcore kind of groovy, but not beat down bullshit either. Think Nasum kind of groovy, well kind of. These sections are far and few between, but if you have a closer listen, you’ll find the odd one or two.
Sticking to the proper punk ethos that is inherit in the music and the structures of the songs, it’s straight up Powerviolence and it does Melbourne proud. To most people, this would be a primitive racket, to me it’s an absolute gem and slaughters from start to finish. Gutless consists of 9 killer tracks and an additional cover of Left for Dead’s “Didn’t I?” which is killer. It’s over before you know it and you’ll find yourself listening to it again and again.

Gawddayumint this is some uncomfortable and antagonistic listening, which even at first impressions seems intentional because there is zero solace or closure to be found here and that's the way this artist likes it. Sex Scheme starts off simple enough and it deceives you into thinking that its all simple bass lines and beats plodding along but then when the guitar comes in and starts running its own show and the vocals follow shortly after it turns into this aggravated fury of masochistic electronic noise rock that slowly and surely abuses you to no end, literally no end because the songs end as abruptly as they come. While I suspect the narratives, if there are any, would be suitably offensive, its hard to tell because of the menacing vocals which are quite a highlight here. Its the sort of intense swooning that would make Stooges era Iggy Pop proud, actually Sex Scheme is probably what you get if you have Iggy Pop front Big Black and the obnoxious knob over-cranked and it works like a charm.

Sunday, 4 May 2014

More weird-ass punk for your soul, this time from New Jersey band, Going Nowhere. The three piece throw three of life's greatest pleasure's - surf rock, punk and sitcoms - into one big package that's caustic and ugly, but oh-so-good.
Sure, the whole hardcore with surf rock thing has been done before, but Going Nowhere (GONO from here on in) play it so much more meaner and noisier than all those other bands, adding just that extra bit of malice and weirdness to their demented take on hardcore, with a sense of humour to boot (in case you hadn't notice this EP's something of a tribute to TV dad extraordinaire, Al Bundy). Vocally, GONO go for a crusty, throaty roar with venomous, spitfire delivery which along with the surf-y rhythms makes for a pretty interesting dynamic.
If you're feeling a particular fed up with whatever suburban hell hole you've found yourself living in, or you just feel like grabbing a beer, sitting on the couch and stuffing your hand down the front of your pants, than I reckon you should probably give this a shot.

PS: Elias, the singer of GONO runs a rad zine. Afraid Of The Basement is dedicated to all things dark, spooky and scurry - film, music, short stories and all. Go check it out HERE

GARLIC AFICIONADOS AND FARMERS REJOICE! For now there is a band that may appeal to your very specific niche.
Deep Creeps are a self described 'noise creep punk' with a garlic farmer for a drummer (according to the email I got from them anyway). They've even named this release after a disease that affects crops, such is their devotion to their craft. Professions and food preferences aside, Deep Creeps certainly do live up to their self coined moniker, delivering a multi-pronged punk attack that is exceedingly hard to categorize and definitely one of the most unique and gripping releases of the genre I've had the pleasure of listening to this year.
If I was to try and pigeonhole Deep Creep's sound, I'd place it somewhere between strung out, heroin soaked sludge, weirdo hardcore a la Neanderthal or Rorschach and angular noise rock, but you know what, that doesn't really do these guys justice. There's snippets of death metal, doom and straight up punk thrown into the thirteen tracks here, and golly gee does it work. For a three piece they know how to get the most out their instruments and keep their music from getting droll.
Honestly, I was pretty stumped as to how to review these guys - but I gave it a shot. Your best course of action now would be to download it, listen to it for yourself and puzzle over the multitude of styles and genres at play here and marvel at how friggin' good this is. Your call.